Talk to me about touring caravans

[EllBend]

So growing up we always had tourers and would go away frequently in them - sometimes where we sited it for long weekends and other times we'd hook up and travel around the country. Some of my favourite childhood memories were created in caravans!

Now, both of my parents now have static vans on the coast which we use frequently, however I'm really considering getting a tourer for myself, DP and DD(5) to use. DD loves her DGP's statics and loves being outdoors, travelling and so on so I think she would enjoy it just as much as I did as a child.

We have a car that could easily tow it, we have the money to buy a nice 4 berth, and I have already found somewhere to site it as we wouldn't want it on the driveway as it would have to block the garage which would be a pain!

So, good & bad experiences please?! Looking through rose tinted glasses here as I didn't have to deal with the practicalities as a child!

Are you going to site it very close to home?

We had one when the kids were young and it was great, but the one PITA was the fact it was sited 20 mins drive away. Doesn't sound much, but we would have to go and fetch it to bring it home to pack it, which with Friday afternoon or Saturday morning traffic would take over an hour round trip.

We wanted to take the bikes which meant we hadn't got space to just pack the car and pick up caravan en route. Much better to have it very close by so you can park it out front and pack stuff directly into the van.

We had a touring caravan for about 20 years. We joined the Caravan Club but found their sites a bit expensive, (large mortgage, loans etc.), so used small five van sites. We also got the rallying bug. We used to rally every weekend with either the Caravan Club local centre or the Trailer Caravan Club. We even did Christmas and New Years, it was great. We bought a large house in the country not too far from the sea. It was a doer upper so sold the van and concentrated on the house. After five years we found we really missed the touring with a caravan but instead of getting a caravan we bought a small camper van. That was fifteen years ago and we are on our fourth camper/motorhome. Our present one we have had for six years and love it. We also worked on campsites during the summer for over ten years. In the winter we disappeared to Europe in the motorhome. We’re retired now and have done a few cruises and package holidays but we’re still looking forward to jumping in the motorhome and driving to Spain, Portugal etc later this year.
Some people, like us, love the caravan/motorhome life, others hate it. I would say to get a cheaper van to start with and give it a go. Stick with it, try different sites, clubs, rallying etc. If it’s not your thing then sell the van, they keep their price well. If you really love it then it’s a win, win. Good luck whatever you decide to do.

Go for it!! My parents had trailer tents when I was young, only upgrading to a caravan once us four kids had grown up enough to not want to holiday with them (or so they thought!!) ,. The reality was that we just took pup tents and slept outside the caravan!!
When my own children were little we had a folding camper and had some amazing holidays. The beauty is that everything is yours so you don't have to worry about breaking things, you know only you have slept on the beds and best of all, there's no cleaning or hoovering that needs doing

We had our tourer on a seasonal pitch around 2 hours away. Lovely quiet site.
My husband didn’t enjoy towing it so it was a good solution.
Buy a good quality awning for extra space.
Upgraded to a static in a different area then to a brand new one in 2019. Just sold it due to my husband’s new job. Missing it like mad.
Enjoy!

Thanks everyone - mainly positive experiences!

The site we'd pitch on is funnily enough, the same one I grew up visiting where my parents pitched seasonally. I've moved locally so it's now 10-15 mins down the road! Lovely open spaces and a river running through the middle for fishing and so on (DP will be pleased) so not too far away at all.

Both of us are happy to tow so we'd do some travelling with it each year too - we usually hire static vans for long weekends but most of the sites we stay on have touring pitches anyway so two birds and all that!

DH I have had a Mini Freestyle 290 micro pop top 2 berth caravan for 3 years, which we bought new once my DS were old enough to not want to go on holiday with us anymore.

I absolutely love it. We like hiking and being able to stay at sites in beautiful locations. We have made it very cosy inside with as many home comforts as we can fit in a tiny space.

Despite being only 2.9m long, it has heating, a hob/sink and decent fridge and washroom, and is very light and easy to manoeuvre. Our model also has a small shower and hot water.

I don't think I'd want to keep it in a storage facility, as it seems like a lot of hassle.

The main reason we chose this was because it fits in our regular sized garage. We had to completely empty the garage to fit it in, but for us it's worth it.

We mainly stay at caravan club sites on serviced pitches which we find suits us, as we have a fixed water tank that we fill with a hose.

Since we both work full time we are limited in how much we use it, but have taken all our holidays in it since we got it and think it was a worthwhile purchase.

We bought our first ever caravan 3 years ago on a bit of a whim and I can’t tell you how much I love it. Sometimes we take it just a few miles down the road because just being in it is so relaxing. Going on holiday and having your own stuff around you, your own bed (and our caravan bed has such a good mattress it’s better than our bed at home!), but being able to explore new places has been amazing. Downside is it’s utterly ruined me for hotels and sleeping in other people’s beds! It’s warm all year round and we’ve taken it to places in the snow before and been completely cosy.

We did camping when our kids were young - they always wanted a caravan but we couldn’t afford it. Now as young adults they come along with us with surprising regularity. They laugh at us a bit when we take it down the road but I notice they still come and spend time with us!

The only downside has been that despite buying a brand new caravan (which we are still paying for but worth it), there’s been quite a few snagging issues so we’ve had to keep hauling it back to the dealer. I think from speaking to others on various sites this is pretty common and we’ve actually been much luckier than some. Oh, and I’ve so far been too much of a wimp to tow it and left that to DH (who to be fair has a lot of large vehicle experience and I don’t) but I plan to finally get to grips with that this year.

I’d say go for it. It’s probably been the best money we’ve ever spent.